Major tech companies like Facebook and Apple saw their stock price surge higher on Wednesday morning, coinciding with Democratic nominee Joe Biden taking a narrow lead in several battleground states over incumbent President Trump.
Overall, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 3.8% about an hour into trading. Facebook and Google were both up more than 6.5%, Apple was up 4% and Amazon was up 5.5% in early-morning trading. The only noticeable drop was Twitter falling another 1.5% to $41.12 per share, continuing an 11-point drop from last week after the company reported lackluster Q3 user growth.
Tech’s gains came as a Biden victory appeared more likely on Wednesday morning than it did on Tuesday night. As of 7:30 a.m. PT, Biden held a slight lead in Wisconsin and Michigan, per multiple reports, as mail-in ballots continue to be counted. Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon on Wednesday morning said “Joe Biden is on track to win this election and he will be the next president of the United States,” per Bloomberg.
President Trump on Wednesday morning said he was skeptical of the turn-in votes. “Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat run [and] controlled,” he tweeted. “Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted. VERY STRANGE, and the ‘pollsters’ got it completely [and] historically wrong!”
Tech’s rally could be tied to the president having been critical of the industry, especially of late. President Trump has said he wants the government to revisit Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the broad legal shield that allows companies like Facebook and Twitter to moderate content as they see fit. Twitter and Facebook have slapped warning labels on a number of Trump posts in the last few months, a move that has only heightened the tension between Big Tech and the White House.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up around 2% in morning trading as well.
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